1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to driver assistance or collision avoidance systems adapted for use with vehicles, and more particularly to a slow or stopped vehicle alert system configured to determine and selectively alert a trailing vehicle to a preceding vehicle excessive speed discrepancy based on a predetermined normally expected speed, or an otherwise stalled condition.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Amongst the concerns of drivers on roadways and thoroughfares is the danger posed by slow, stopped, or otherwise stalled preceding vehicles. These vehicles may present an obstacle when the driver least expects it, thereby requiring the driver to drastically manipulate the vehicle. As such, collision avoidance systems have been developed to aid in alerting a driver to an approaching stalled vehicle. A variety of sensory-based implementations that employ exterior sensors to detect objects have been developed with mixed results. Once detected these systems are configured to determine the relative range and speed of an object, and alert an operator typically through visual, audio, or haptic means, if a predetermined threshold is not exceeded. Generally, these systems, however, provide short-range detection according to their sensors capabilities, are limited by line of sight, and as such, are limited in their ability to forewarn a trailing vehicle driver.
More recently, long-range collision avoidance systems have been developed. For example, a headlight implementation utilizes encoded specialized lights, receivers, and decoders to continuously transmit streams of data within light beams.